I apologize for not posting for so long.

No worries, I haven't given up on this story (or my other one), but things at uni were kind of stressful (and still will be for about a month), and I also went on holiday, so posting was postponed. But I'm back now and I'll try to get back to at least one chapter a week :)

alix33: It really is. I was wondering if I went a bit overboard with the whole bookworm thing, but I felt like moderate exaggeration is very much part of the Harry Potter spirit, so I went with it. Glad you liked it :)

Alicia Olivia Mirza: He might...After all, with Tonks attending there might be a new incentive to return to Hogwarts ;)

Lupinfamily4ever: Thanks! I love writing Sirius/Remus scenes like that, the bickering between them is just far too much fun. And I'm really glad you guys enjoy it as well :)

4Eirlys: Krum is Bulgarian, but personally I don't think Durmstrang is in Bulgaria (although we are never told, so it might be). For once, Dumbledore mentions they're "from the North", and Bulgaria is very much South of Britain. And secondly, with the few magical schools that are mentioned, I don't think a country as small of that would have its own school. My guess (and the scenario I'll be using in this story) is that there would be a school in Eastern Europe that has students from many different countries, and the common language would most likely be Russian. But that's pure speculations and might be nonsense, of course.

A lot of letters

It was past midnight when Remus finally stumbled back into the cottage, thoroughly exhausted but in a considerably better mood than when he had left. Of course Sirius was still waiting for him, grinning at him over the top of a magazine that Remus very much hoped he had fetched only after Harry had gone to bed.

"So…how was it?" he asked, in a falsely innocent tone that made Remus want to run straight back out of the door again.

"None of your business, Padfoot," he said, sitting down in his armchair and kicking of his shoes. For a moment Sirius was silent, and Remus allowed his eyes to drift closed, thinking that maybe the annoying mutt had finally given-

"So are you going to see her again? Or was this a shag and run?"

Oh, blast it.

"Yes, I am. I'm teaching her Russian, for Merlin's sake. So get your mind out of the gutter and stop acting like a ten-year-old."

Sirius frowned, before grinning again. "Teaching Russian? Is that what they're calling it these days? You've got to be more explicit with me, after twelve years in Azkaban I'm a bit rusty with the pop culture."

This was obviously hopeless.

"It's not a euphemism. I'm going to bed now." He rose again, deciding that the probability of a relaxing cup of tea in front of the fire had reached zero.

But before he had gotten far, Sirius spoke again, this time sounding a lot more sincere. "There was a letter for you. From Dumbledore."

Remus stopped dead in his track. He'd written to the headmaster only this morning, thanking for the offered position and politely declining. "What does he want?"

Sirius held up his hands. "How should I know!? I don't go snooping around your mail, do I? It's on the mantel piece." Remus walked over, but before he had even reached it Sirius said: "He's insisting you take the job. Says that he'll handle the ministry. You're not gonna refuse again, are you?"

Remus sighed, pocketing the opened letter without even looking at it. "Thanks, Padfoot. You didn't also answer him on my behalf, did you?"

Sirius at least had the decency to look ashamed of himself. "Well, I couldn't know it was for you, could I?"

"It has my name on it!"

"Yes, but he can hardly put mine if he wants to write to me, can he? It might have been for me."

Remus didn't even grace that with a response, walking out of the room without a further word. As he was climbing the stairs, he heard Sirius yell after him: "You're going to take it, aren't you? Moony? Tell me you're gonna take the job!"

"Privet."

"Huh?" Tonks stopped, sloshing coffee from the cup she'd been holding over her hands. She winced in pain, cursing early mornings and work in general. Kingsley merely grinned at her. "Kak pozhivayete?"

It took her a while to make sense of the sounds coming out of his mouth. "Oh, very funny," she muttered, rolling her eyes. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Just checking on your progress. When are you going to confess to Scrimgeour?" He leaned back in his chair, obviously highly pleased by his own wit.

She snorted. "How long did it take you to look that one up? Did you actually come in early to do research just so you could wind me up?"

Kingsley shrugged. "Popped by the International Department on my way here. I had them write me down a whole stack of phrases; I can do this all week." He pointed towards a pile of memos pinned to his desk.

Tonks would have to ask Remus for some Russian insults first thing this evening.

"You're just jealous," she said, walking over to her own desk, "And for your information, I actually found someone to teach me." With that she sat down in what was supposed to be a dignified sweep, but turned into an embarrassing stumble when she nearly missed the chair.

"You did?" Kingsley had come after her, obviously deeming his own work unimportant enough to annoy her instead. "Who is it? You do realize Scrimgeour will get suspicious if you show up at the language course in the International Department?"

Tonks rolled her eyes. "I'm not stupid, git. It's that guy Dawlish and I investigated. Remus Lupin."

Kingsley's eyebrows shot up. "The werewolf? I thought he taught Defence."

"Yes, well, apparently he also speaks Russian. And he's harmless; all he does is read."

Kingsley laughed. "I know he's harmless; I went to Hogwarts with him. I told Dawlish so, but of course he didn't listen. So where did you find him, then?"

Tonks picked up a file, leafing through it in the well-practiced it-looks-like-we're-talking-about-work-when-really-we're-just-chatting-routine. "At the Leaky on Friday, right after you left. He was over last night, and he says it's doable to learn it till September."

"At the Leaky?" Kingsley repeated, taking her quill and doodling on a piece of parchment as if taking notes. "Back to chatting up random strangers?"

Tonks felt herself blushing, and hastily morphed it away. "It's nothing like that! He's like a million years older than me and he thinks history books are interesting. I don't date everybody I meet, Kingsley."

The other Auror didn't comment, though she could swear she heard him mutter something like "You certainly do try…" as he was strolling away just as Dawlish walked past her booth, looking cross and intent on telling dawdlers off.

Tonks hastily bowed over the file she'd been holding, groaning when she realized it was another collection of falsified reports of Dark magic that needed to be looked in, meaning a morning of writing about old ladies who'd been scared by cats.

As she was trying not to fall asleep, she felt guilt creep up in her for talking like that about Remus.

He wasn't that old, after all. He didn't exactly look like the picture of youth, with all those scars and his greying hair, but if he had been at Hogwarts with Kingsley he couldn't be older than forty, probably closer to thirty-five.

And he might have strange interests, but talking to him last night had been anything but boring. She had been surprised at his wicked sense of humour, and the mischievous character hiding beneath the calm facade.

He's good looking.

That thought surprised her.

Because, objectively, Remus Lupin wasn't a handsome man, at least not to classical standards. His hair was flecked with grey, his face lined and scarred, and his robes patched so often some kids would pay a lot of money to have their clothes look like that.

Yet there was something to him that made her stop to look, and last night she had caught herself more than once stealing glances in his direction when he wasn't looking. Maybe it was his eyes, pale blue and seemingly shining of their own accord, or the way his light brown hair was slightly too long, fringe falling into his eyes ever so often, or the way he smiled when...

Not that Tonks would date him, of course. For once, he was still a suspect of sorts, even though the official investigation had ended. And, more importantly, he simply wasn't her type.

No matter how cute his smile might be.

Remus wasn't sure what was more annoying – Sirius badgering him about returning to Hogwarts, or about his "secret Russian girlfriend", or Sergie (because pronouncing SeRGi was too much of a hassle) as he had dubbed her.

The lessons with Tonks were going well – she had obviously no great gift for languages, but she was fiercely determined and worked hard, barely allowing herself a free minute between work and lessons. So hard, in fact, that on Thursday night he came back from her kitchen after having prepared tea, only to find she had fallen asleep on the book he had set her to read.

For a moment he simply stood there, contemplating his options. He could leave – probably the safest route, but not exactly polite. He could wait to see if she was going to wake up by herself, which judging by her uncomfortable position shouldn't take too long. Then again, she was snoring softly… Remus sighed defeated, realizing that he would have to wake her up.

He carefully set down the mugs on the table (which was a lot more cleaner now than when he had first seen it. Tonks hadn't been lying, after all, for now that she had cleared away the mess created to annoy Andromeda, her flat looked almost normal. Or normal if one had shared a dorm with Sirius Black for seven years.) and approached her slowly.

Her hair, pink today, was significantly paler than it had been when he had arrived almost three hours ago, and there was a distinct shade of brown creeping up from the roots. He wondered if it was a sign of exhaustion or if Metamorphagi generally lost their morph while sleeping – brown was probably her natural colour. He unconsciously took a step closer, taking in her face. It looked the same as ever, pale, heart-shaped, and…twitching.

His heart started beating faster as Tonks moved, eyes moving wildly behind closed lids and obviously waking up. He was just about to take a hasty step back, when she opened her mouth.

"R-Remus."

It was barely for than a warbled mumbling, and he might well have misheard (in fact he convinced himself he had, later that night when he was lying in bed, unable to sleep), but it struck him nevertheless, and he just stared at her, unable to move while she was slowly opening her eyes.

For a moment, she didn't react at all, simply staring at him as he stared back, a look of mild confusion on her face.

Then realization hit, and she jerked up, eyes wide open now. "Fuck!" She blushed, shaking her head as if to get rid of the sleepiness. "I…Did I fall asleep? Merlin, this is embarrassing. How long…"

Remus had to fight a smile at her frantic confusion, and quickly placed a mug of tea in her hand. "Only a minute or so. I was just about to wake you up."

But Instead I stared at you like a creepy pervert for a bit.

He cleared his throat, trying to get his thoughts into some sort of order. "Maybe I should go. It is getting rather late."

"No!" Tonks cried, suddenly looking very upset, before she caught herself and blushed again, quietly muttering: "I mean…you've just made a cup of tea. At least drink that first." Remus hesitated, but sat down again nonetheless.

"Stressing day at work?" he asked after a minute of uncomfortable silence.

Tonks groaned. "Terrible. Everyone's freaking out 'cos of the World Cup, and with all the extra security spells being placed there's a ton of paperwork that gets left over. Which they of course drop on those of us stuck in the office. I swear, the next file Kingsley leaves on my desk I'm going to set on fire."

Remus had to laugh at that. He knew Tonks well enough by now that sitting still was not exactly her strongest suit – even during their lesson she'd jump up suddenly and stroll through the room in the middle of a discussion – and the thought of her being stuck behind a pile of parchment while the other Aurors were watching Quidditch games (because that's what Tonks claimed those on duty were really doing, anyway) was highly amusing.

"And Dad's been nagging me for ages to get him tickets for the finale. He seems to be under the impression they're just handing them out in the atrium."

Remus looked up from his tea, surprised. He remembered Arthur Weasley, whom his son Ron seemed to be confident would be able to get not just a few tickets, but enough for all of his children.

"Surely you must know someone from the Department who could help out?"

Tonks face darkened. "I do. But we went on a date a month ago and I ended up emptying a cup of coffee in his lap. I don't think he'll be happy to help me." Remus raised an eyebrow, but Tonks didn't comment further, and shrugged. "Dad'll just have to pay for them, like any normal wizard. Are you going?"

He shook his head. "I've never been much of a Quidditch enthusiast. Harry is, but luckily the Weasley family offered to take him with them."

"Weasley?" Tonks asked. "I didn't know you knew them. I used to go out with their son Charlie Weasley at Hogwarts. Haven't seen him in years, though, word is he's in Romania getting eaten by dragons." Her gaze drifted off into the distance, and Remus suddenly felt annoyance rising in his stomach, although he couldn't for the life of him figure out what it was that made him so disgruntled.

"I don't really know them well myself, but Harry's friends with their youngest son, Ron," he said, in a desperate attempt to ignore the sudden burning, and failing miserably. He quickly drained his cup, scalding his throat in the process, and rose to his feet. "I think I'll be going now. Maybe we should skip tomorrow; you look like you could use some rest."

"No!" Tonks cried, jumping to her feet. "It's fine, I'll just catch up on sleep at work. The office is empty half the time these days anyway, no one will notice." She grinned at him, and her eyes sparkled in a way that made the anger in his chest melt away like butter.

Yes. There is definitely something strange going on.

Despite her protests, Remus insisted on cutting back their lessons after this incident, which had the added benefit of getting Sirius to ease up on the constant teasing a little (or maybe he was simply getting bored and running out of inappropriate Russia puns). The Hogwarts thing was trickier to get rid of.

Remus had written to Dumbledore again at breakfast, but the next day there was another letter. This time he didn't even write back, suspecting that this was some sort of ill-advised prank. On Wednesday morning, there were two letters.

"I think they really are from Dumbledore," Harry said, feeding the school owls that had delivered the mail a few specks of bacon, which earned him cries of outrage from Hedwig. "He did something like that to me too, when the Dursleys wouldn't let me open my Hogwarts letter."

Remus frowned. "Your letters weren't being delivered properly. These are. I'm reading them; I even replied to them!"

"Yeah, but you gave the wrong answer," Sirius pointed out, stuffing another sausage in his mouth. "I bet if you just said yes, they'd stop."

Remus didn't reply yes, and the letters didn't stop. By Friday, there was a whole stack of letters, and the garden looked as if the owlery at Hogwarts had temporarily taken up camp there, much to Buckbeak's annoyance.

"This is getting ridiculous," Remus complained. "If you're behind this Padfoot, I'll throw you out. I don't care you're homeless, go live in a cave if you have to." Sirius merely grinned, obviously highly pleased at the whole situation, before bursting into laughter when a barn owl relieved itself on the hippogriff's head.

On Sunday morning, there was a knock on the door.

"Good morning, Remus," Professor Dumbledore said, smiling politely as he stepped over the threshold. "Did you get my letter?"

Albus Dumbledore, the king of spam mail. I wonder if there are spam filters for owls...

Anyway, what did you think? And apologies again for the long delay, next chapter will be up soon! :)